Neosho animal shelter remains overcrowded

On any given day at Neosho’s animal shelter, “Tom”, a fat, fluffy tomcat, can be seen prowling around the building, catching mice.

Advanced in years and having lost part of an ear to frostbite, Tom is what you might call the trustee of the shelter. He’s the only inmate permitted out from behind bars.

Technically, animals are usually allowed only a 30-day stay, though this isn’t strictly enforced. Tom is an exception. He’s been around for a while. Because of his frostbitten ear, no one wants to adopt him. So he’s become the unofficial mascot of the place.

And over the months, Tom has seen a lot of animals come and go. Some to adoption. Others to lethal injection.

About a month ago, there were around 40 animals, mostly strays, at the shelter. There are 27 cages total — 16 for dogs, 11 for cats.

At times, overcrowding is a problem, officials admit. And there isn’t enough funding to expand the building. That’s why plans by a private group to construct what at one time was supposed to be a 2,000 square foot facility to house animals is largely looked at as the saving solution.

The only problem is, it’s about two years behind schedule.

According to a year-end report compiled by the Neosho Police Department, the city shelter took in 641 animals in 2007. That was one-third more animals than the year before, according to the report.

Largely, the increase was due to the fact that, before, strays just weren’t being picked up, according to current animal control officer Ben Stoerger.

The position he now fills was going through a constant transition.

“They had went through several people and at times there was nobody there,” he said.

When the shelter gets too full, there isn’t much that can be done. Adoptions are a hit and miss. A lot of people that make appointments to look at a possible pet don’t even show up, Stoerger said.

About 90 percent of the successful adoptions are a result of postings made on petfinder.com, he said. Most of the people who do adopt are from the general area, though there are a few exceptions. One occurred just a couple of weeks ago, when an animal rescue group from Colorado took in 19 of the Neosho animals.

But instances like that don’t happen very often.

Last year, 166 dogs and cats — about 26 percent of the total picked up — were euthanized at the shelter. A local veterinarian comes to the site and gives the condemned animals a lethal injection. The building’s gas chamber is no longer in use, Stoerger said.

“When you look at Neosho’s (animal) pick up to euthanization ratio, ours is much better than the national average,” Russell said. “But we want to do a lot better. We’re not happy with our ratio. We don’t want to have to destroy animals.”

Stoerger said he’s made adoption postings on other Web sites, such as craigslist.org, but without much success. Petfinder.com, a national Web site, so far has proved the best tool in finding homes for the animals at the city shelter.

Outside of somehow increasing adoptions, there isn’t much the city can do, Russell said, in remedying overcrowding at the shelter while also keeping euthanizations down. New cages might be in the works, but because of limited space, they won’t necessarily be bigger. And adding on to the building doesn’t rank very high on the city’s spending list, Russell indicated.

Ideally, Russell said he’s counting on the construction of an entirely new animal shelter.

It’s a prospect that has been floating around for some time now.

In October 2005, the New-Mac (that is, Newton-McDonald County) Regional Humane Society received $100,000 in seed money to build a 2,000 square foot animal shelter, one big enough to accommodate around 50 dogs and cats. The society had already raised about $20,000 for the project at that time.

By early 2006, groundbreaking was set to begin within 60 days.

And then nothing happened.

According to board member Pat Le Sueur, the group decided to wait on more donations, at least enough to cover expenses for one year, estimated at being $60-80,000.

“There’s no use having a building if you can’t pay to keep it going,” she said.
Le Sueur said the board would be meeting soon, possibly around the first of March, and she would know more then about where the society was at in funding for the project.

The facility would be located near the corner of Howard Bush Drive and Lyon Drive (Route D). The land would be leased from the city.

Meanwhile, Russell is counting on the much larger humane society building to completely replace the city’s shelter, which could still be used for overflow.

Having the new facility would also mean the public animal control officer could focus almost all of his time on animal calls, Russell said.

Although his days are pretty fluid, Stoerger said he typically spends about a fourth of his eight-hour shift cleaning the shelter and caring for the animals, and another fourth in administrative tasks and adoptions. When it’s all said and done, less than half of the day is actually spent picking up strays.

But that would change, Russell believes, with the new humane society shelter.

“That’s our primary goal — getting a full-time guy to pick up animals in Neosho,” Russell said. “That’s obviously the most desirable outcome. Not just for us, but for the animals. We’ll do the right thing out there for them.”

Neosho Daily News

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